Basant Bahadur creates new National record

Patiala, Feb 21 (UNI) Unheralded armyman Basant Bahadur set a new National record in the men's 50 km walk in the Ist Indian Athletic Grand Prix here today.

Bahadur finished the event in 4::10:42, bettering Gurdev Singh's (4::16:22) three year old record by six minutes.

Bahadur's performance today is a good sign for the walker who is close to the Beijing qualification mark (4::07:00). In fact it turned out to be a good day for the walkers because all those who finished the event bettered the national record.

In the triple jump, Amarjit Singh of Railways (16.30m) won the Gold by beating National Record holder Renjith Maheswari (15.83m).

His attempts were (16.07, 16.22, x, x, 16.20, 16.30) while Renjith's attempts were (14.97, 15.34, 14.02, 15.83, 14.41, 15.33).

In the women's 400m meter, Chitra Soman won the gold clocking 53.19s. Mandeep Kaur (53.47) managed to clinch the silver ahead of Manjit Kaur (53.62).

Neelam Jaswant Singh was back on the throwing cirlcle after serving a two-year ban for failing a dope test the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005.

The event, however was won by Harwant Kaur (58.54). Seema Antil finished second in this event.

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